With the advent of the Internet and related technologies, electronic commerce and related online services has become one of the fast growing segments of the economy. Organizational data networks gather, validate, verify and exchange end user information in an effort to understand, for example, the kinds of products, services and qualities consumers value most, and how and why they make such determinations.
With regard to the electronic trade (or e-Trade) industry, there have long been individual computers loaded with programs for performing online purchasing, inventory control and accounting functions to manage resources. Such systems rely upon the processing power and data within the single stand-alone computer. A problem with these single computer applications has been that more processing power and data access capability are needed, as well as reduced bandwidth usage coupled with web and virtual world access.
Another related problem is that each transaction must be paid in full before goods and services are shipped, which particularly complicates matters for consumers who must obtain funds through financial institutions. Solutions to these problems are presented in the published doctoral dissertation of the present inventor, entitled Designing Hot billing Systems for Large Volume and or Complex Network, hereinafter referred as the doctorial dissertation, submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management at California Coast University in November of 1999, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention also relates generally to the field of Telecommunications, using parallel cluster computers to create a very fast and inexpensive computer network system that allows the integration of the Internet as a large and complex Telco Network. The application is meant to further clarify and elucidate the reader with the intellectual property contained in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,614,893, 6,842,511, 7,050,813 and 7,058,601 by expanding from simple ILEC to national carriers, global IP Telephony and Wireless Telecommunications Real Time billing of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The concept of vector CDR is further expanded to include roaming surcharges and multi-organization calls. The invention solves intrinsic drawbacks of clusters by dividing them into a grid of nodes that are able to move large amounts of data, and can perform decisions on their own absent of the centralized Symmetric Multiprocessor (SMP) of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The computer network system and each of its Intelligent Components analyze, gather and distill the messages of the environment and then prime, rate and match/merge the plurality of CDR into a correlated billing entity that, in turn, is stored. The technology has evolved into a mission critical system that is designed to simulate and plot circuit by circuit all of message of the Simulation Network.
Finally, the technology uses fuzzy math to measure the quality, performance and strength of the traffic traveling through the environment, so that human intelligence can perform strategic planning, and using Business Intelligence programs better understand the needs of the end users.
By incorporating a computer network system into a UCommerce, the supplier system will be able to identify inefficiencies, match/merge multiple quotes to take benefit of economies of scale, perform savings optimizing the traffic patterns of the movement of merchandise from Leg A (origin) to Leg B (destination) using X_FOB and Y_CDIF, and convert all of the suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, warehouses and links to possess geospatial, demographic and debit card functionalities to improve product, quality and service.
Accordingly, there is a well-established unmet need for financial resource management, online purchasing and inventory control systems overcoming the drawbacks and limitations of the prior art.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a computer network system operating in parallel and simulating a network of existing retailers, wholesalers and suppliers, wherein the system has the capability to produce, sell or transfer goods and/or services without taxing the capacity of the existing network.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a computer network system configured to instantaneously generate, plot and update a lowest price and optimal shipping cost trajectory between two geographical locations for each user's request, immediately upon scanning the user's initial network message.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a computer network system which plots the optimal shipping trajectory, providing the lowest cost and delay time for a particular transaction. Where the purchase order contains pricing data that enables billing to commence, the moment of the financial resources are made available and continued in real time as the transaction progresses.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a computer network system that minimizes bandwidth usage by performing scheduled and synchronized “available inventory” calculations and updates throughout the network. The Simulation Network can accurately project future resource requirement trends in order to update end user's software to avoid system congestion. Preferably, a Summit Tier is provided to update all of the components by sending only summarized information packets to their organizational subordinates.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a computer network system that enables customers and multiple suppliers to collectively partially satisfy an entire purchase order.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide such a network system that maximizes network-processing power by shunting calls from computers momentarily operating at or near capacity, and thus having smaller buffers to less-taxed computers having larger buffers. Preferably, this process of sharing available resources between members of the systems mimics lateral and vertical synergy.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a system that enables customers and multiple suppliers to collectively and partially satisfy an entire purchase order.
It is still another object of the present invention to partition the main cluster or superset into sets, subsets and elements, which are placed in a distributed manner for better efficiency and effectiveness of handle tasks.
It is still another object of the present invention to add geospatial components to X_FOB and Y_CDIF methods and multi transport dimensioning to permit sophisticated logistic planning of resources from origin to destination.
It is still another object of the present invention to create a method that identifies the best P/U at the local, regional and global scope, commercially known as Z_PRICE, pronounced as ‘The Price’. And using Z_Price to match/merge a plurality of quotes into a macro quote with several transport and time sensitive dimensions.
It is still another object of the present invention to give vector characteristics to the geospatial information into traffic patterns that permit the optimal distribution of goods and services.
It is still another object of the present invention to transform the Summit Tier into a global domain Superset cluster, the Middleware tier into a regional domain set cluster and the Lower Tier into a local domain subset cluster.
It is still another object of the present invention to transform local warehousing means that can accommodate retailers, wholesalers and suppliers organizations, UCommerce, Free Trade Zone and customs warehouses.
It is still another object of the present invention to optimize transport dimensions using X_FOB and Y_CDIF to comply with Z_PRICE optimizations. And optimize the search engines dimensions using W_RANK environmental bitmap data or summary report data.
It is still another object of the present invention to convert all of the physical and electronic information into optimal relational inventory data structures and assigned physical inventory with geospatial characteristics.
It is still another object of the present invention to apply the process of cleaning and standardizing the environmental spaghetti, and enabling a lingua franca interface to distribution and storages means of goods and services converting all of the data into an Informational superset (U).
It is still another object of the present invention to transforming and organizing the spaghetti of global traffic and availability of merchandise that is delivered door to door. This is the process where the summit tier removes all of the anarchy, chaos, redundancy and saturation, and in turn, Information Entropy is achieved.
It is still another object of the present invention to create the Z_PRICE method that analyzes and evaluates the bottlenecks of the logistical queue of traffic in order to identify the lowest cost and time delays associated with the transportation of goods and services door to door by using optimal X_FOB and Y_CDIF prices from the local, regional and global scope points of view.
It is still another object of the present invention to create the W_RANK method that analyzes and evaluates the Internet's environmental spaghetti to associate, coordinate, control, optimize, synchronize and then match/merge a plurality of independent searches into higher informational quality results. The top valued W_RANK bitmaps are used as display means to end users.
Note: from related art that was incorporated by reference that uses the commercial name of the tiers, the summit tier is also known as the Managerial Pyramid Switch or MPS, the middleware tier is also known as the Synergy Interface Switch or SIS, and the Lower Tier is also known as Team Work Switch or TWS.
The supercomputer can have a plurality of switches per tier, and each tier is programmed with artificial intelligence to make proactive decisions and purchase merchandise, or update the its own database with the up to date latest information derived from the simulation environment that continuously replicates an echo of the environment. E.g. the simulation environment for the XCommerce is the Internet and it is updated by web crawlers as the find new relevant and significant information as per Z_Price optimal inventories.